AMERICAN LEGION: Bezek, BSP hold on to down Hopewell

HAMILTON — Brian Jacobs and Garrett Bezek know a lot about the hard work and perseverance it takes to make it as pitchers.

They also know that, as hard as they work, things do not always go their way.

So it was probably appropriate that these two veteran pitchers were going head-to-head when the Mercer County American Legion League game between Hopewell Post 339 and Broad Street Park Post 313 got moved to Bob DeMeo Field in Veterans Park yesterday.

Jacobs and Bezek did yeoman’s work for their respective teams. In the end, it was Bezek and BSP which held on for a 4-1 win in yet another strange game.

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Everything seemed pretty normal until with one out in the top of the seventh inning, the sprinklers came on unexpectedly. After a half-hour delay, the game was finished with Post 339 staging a rally in the bottom of the seventh when Bezek, who had been pitching a shutout, returned to the hill.

With the bases loaded and two outs, manager Mike Petrowski called on John Lansing to close it out before everyone, including Hopewell, which had another game to play last night, could breathe a sigh of relief.

“The delay tightened me a little bit,” Bezek said after posting his first win. “This was just my third start, but I have thrown in relief. I felt a little wild at times, but, for the most part, I thought I threw pretty good.”

Bezek, who will head to Mercer County Community College after graduating from Hamilton High last month, limited Post 339 to four hits for six innings.

Upon his return, Joe Gambino doubled with one out, stole third base and scored when Jim Smiegocki hit a fielder’s choice to shortstop which was bobbled.

Jacobs, one of the veteran pitchers in the MCALL, was not as fortunate despite holding Post 313 scoreless for four innings.

After getting out of a bases-loaded no-out jam unscathed in the third and seeing Potts get gunned down at the plate in the fourth, Jacobs’ defense failed him.

A pair of errors led to a three-run fifth inning. After having pitched against BSP earlier in the season, that made seven unearned runs Jacobs had allowed versus one of the league’s toughest lineups.

“Given the situation, I felt I had good stuff,” Jacobs said after going the distance and striking out eight. “We have a young team, so mistakes happen. This was not really the way any of us thought the season was going to go.”

The 6-foot-5 right-hander who will be a sophomore at The College of Charleston in the fall had been hoping to help Hopewell repeat as MCALL champs this summer. Instead, the team has struggled at 4-16.

Like he did yesterday, Jacobs showed he has made himself into one of the better pitchers in the league.

“This is my ninth year throwing to (catcher) John deDufour, so I owe some of my success to him,” said Jacobs, who surrendered his first earned run against Post 313 this season when Dave Osnato doubled and stole home in the seventh.

Years of hard work and the ability to bounce back from not-so-good games are what helped Bezek and Jacobs shine as the 2013 MCALL regular season got a little closer to completion yesterday.